eat in town. chautauqua is a retreat in a beautiful place for enrichment, and like men, entertainment, and coming together. who were intended to be the audience of the chautauqua were what we would call the middle class. the programs at most of the chautauquas were similar -- a combination of speakers of the both whatvariety of we might consider highbrow and lowbrow entertainment like opera and classical music and probably what would be considered the vaudeville of that day. >> watch all of our events from older today at noon eastern on afternoon and sunday at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span three. next, author in history professor patra dewitt talks about the missouri home

front in world war i. german-americans met up some of the largest population at the time and were criticized for being german. is nothor suggest this just because of the sedition act of local authorities were harsher judges of patriotism. the kansas city public library hosted this one hour 10 minute event. >> welcome. my name is eli paul and i direct the missouri valley special collections of the kansas city public library as well as the speakers series. thank you for attending. today's lecture. many of us across the nation and the world are currently observing and commemorating the events of the century ago. here in kansas city, the library in the national world war i museum have joined forces to organize a community read two world war i classics - "all quiet on the western front" and the "guns of august." i would suggest adding another title to your reading list.

one that is a little closer to home relevant to our times, and this author is alive and with us today. that person is petra dewitt. she is the author of "degrees of allegiance." she earned her doctorate in history from the university of missouri and teaches that missouri university of science and technology. hers is a timely topic. after the united states entered that world conflict, what did it take to prove you were a true american? how do you protect your native language, culture when it comes under government sanctioned attack? how could members of missouri's largest ethnic community have their loyalty questioned in 1917 only a few generations after

their ancestors fought against slavery in the civil war? she has explored all of these questions and more and will discuss the problems of the home front when america goes to war. please welcome to the kansas city public library petra dewitt. [applause] >> thank you very much. i am so honored that you have invited me. this is the largest audience i have had so far. it shows me there is interest here in kansas city about history. little did i think i would come back. 14 years ago, i went back to the world war i museum to do some research. i did the research for my dissertation, but it grew into

this book. as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of world war i, it is my task to tell you what happened here on the homefront during this war. the reason i wrote this book is that i have a bit of an argument with those old historians. they wrote in the 1960's and 1970's, they argued that this was total top-down federal government involvement. and as a result, german culture was exterminated in the united states. i see some of you reacted the same way as i reacted when i was told to read a book about the subject. wait a minute. people are proud of being

german. we have centers here in missouri where people celebrate their german-ness. they have an oktoberfest. hermann, missouri comes to mind. they preserve their german culture. the preservation of architecture and so on. we have several areas in missouri where it is being heralded. they are proud of being german. i ask some questions. why did they say german culture was exterminated question mark why did they focus on this top-down government oppression? think about the 1960's and 1970's, people were very suspicious of government.

many of the scholars had the suspicion and that informed how they asked questions about the primary documents they were reading about the war. the analytical approach is that they were taking. i started to dig a little deeper. if they concentrated on things like espionage. the espionage act was in june of 1917 and the intent was to find spies, the enemy within. there is a little clause but also states that a citizen could be held responsible if he or she made willful expressions that

intended to interfere with the military. how it practiced during the war. it had to be willful. if you look into the debate about the espionage act in congress, you see many of the congressmen are very worried about the suspension of the american liberties, american freedom, including the freedom of speech. when you put that word willful intent in there to make sure that not just anybody who expresses an opinion will be arrested. they have to seriously want to interfere with the military. the historians who look at the espionage act said, here is this act and here are these 2000 people who were arrested and convicted under this. therefore, this is top-down oppression upon the american people.

another piece of legislation they looked at was trading with the enemy act. it was supposed to limit the impact of the foreign language press. every foreign language newspaper had to file translations of any articles that have published about the war, the national government, the military. if they filed those translations with the local postmaster, that newspaper would get a stamp of loyalty. and then they could go on and published in the language they were publishing in. kansas city at that time had two german language newspapers.

they both abided by those rules. the second part of the trading with the enemy act was that with the establishment of an alien property custodian. this alien property custodian had the right to confiscate or hold property held by german nationals living in the united states. american citizens living in germany. or any interests or trusts or any enemy in aliens whether they are german immigrants are german people living in germany or that they are austrians living in germany

or the united states whatsoever. this custodian had the right to hold it, but a director in charge of that property, or if he saw fit, could sell the property. the funds would go into the united states treasury. the third major legislation was the sedition act. congress realized the espionage act had problem. they could not control tradition. -- sedition and opposition to period during this time with just the espionage act. they also saw the increasing numbers of arrests under the espionage act. congress acted upon this in may of 1918. they thought it was the enemy within. suspended the freedom of speech until 1921. for the duration of the war.

if you look at just the three pieces of legislation, you could make the argument that this is top-down oppression in the united states by the federal government. if you look at private organizations such as the american protective league, an organization of volunteers assigned to the justice department, then you really can see this oppression. these operatives would take this kind of both -- i, do hereby solemnly swear that i will uphold the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. that is an oath that you would

take if you want to become a federal employee. it is the second paragraph that gets interesting. i will give due time and diligent attention to such service in this department as i shall volunteer. i will promptly report all information of every kind and character from whatever source arises. what did they just swear to? spies. they are going to spy on their neighbors, friends, even on children, family. in essence, they are swearing that they are going to be snooping. they will become the eyes and years of the government.

they also have badges that they can have on their lapel. i found evidence, for example, of several operatives with jackets on and i don't know what it is about taverns, but tongues loosen up. one person says, i think it is a whole bunch of hogwash. i think president wilson ought to be stuffed into a cannon and shot out to sea. these gentlemen get up and are placing this young man under arrest under the espionage act. how does he interfere with the military?

whose life did he just threaten? the commander-in-chief, absolutely correct. the president of the united states. these operatives work in sometimes legal ways and other times not so legal ways. they investigated violations off the espionage act. they examined so-called pro-german propaganda. if somebody said, i think my neighbor is not quite as patriotic as he should be and turns the name in, and then operative investigates the character of that person. when we look at the incidents,

we can clearly see that there may be some top-down. i also asked some different questions. german culture was exterminated during this time. , that's what historians said. i think there is something wrong with that argument. i see a different kind of research. i began to ask new questions. is the enforcement of this national legislation or these pieces of legislation universal throughout? or do we have pockets where there is more enforcement? has that been relayed to the survival of the culture in one area, but the disappearance of the german culture in other areas?

i tried to get my hands on as many newspapers as i could. many of them are on microfilm. we have a fabulous collection in columbia. at the state historical society and they are happy to direct us to all kind of libraries within the state. i also found the papers for the council of defense. for missouri which became the organization in charge of mobilizing the state for the war. with all the information i found, i crafted this map. the gray areas that you see on the map, these are the areas of heavy german settlements within the state. down here in cape girardeau all , the way along the missouri river, which is opposed to resemble the rhineland. we even have a small amish community.

the gray is the german settlement area. then i superimposed all of these incidents that happened in the state. we have mob activity, identified by red. a mob of people targeted one individual and either gave him a whipping or forced him to kiss the flag or something like that. we have evidence of several places where there are name changes. in kansas city, we have the german hospital. it changed its name to the research hospital. we also have individual companies, or it was formally called the german-american bank.

that now calls itself the mercantile trust company. i even have found evidence of one person who petitioned the local courts in kansas city to have his name officially changed to charles gordon. to make sure there would be no suspicion of pro-german sympathy to put on his name. i have other incidents identified. the dark blue is where people accuse each other of disloyalty and we will be hearing about what exactly that would mean. we have some towns being renamed. in st. louis, we have the largest incidents of renaming of streets. for example berlin avenue , becomes pershing avenue. [laughter]

might as well on her general [laughter]the most german county in missouri, we have a small town of potsdam, renamed pershing. to honor the general. i plotted this map and then i looked at what i just plotted. what do i see? do all the accusations just happen where the germans are living? does violence simply happen were all germans are living? they are throughout the state. doesn't it happen where the germans are living? not necessarily. in callaway county, we have an incident of flag kissing. we have that in saline county as well. even in jackson county, an american-born.

of at least three generations of american parents. it does not necessarily correlate. if you first look at the map there's a bit of concentration , where the germans are living, but it was not convincing enough that there is a direct correlation to twin accusations, violations, and where german-americans are living. i was asking you questions. -- new questions. what does it mean to be loyal? who defines the loyalty? who enforces the loyalty? and to what extent do they enforce that loyalty? once i began to realize, wait a minute, this is at the local level by local people, i began to look away from the federal government. the new truth revealed itself to me. yes, we have the federal law. who is enforcing those federal

laws? it is not federal government officials. it is your neighbors enforcing these laws. based upon local, political, social relationships, it is all up to the local circumstances. let's look at some definitions of loyalty. everybody was expecting the liberty bond. -- expected to buy a liberty bond. it is a war savings bond. the government will pay you 4% interest. even today, that would be nice. [laughter] most everybody was supposed to buy a $50 bond. even the poorest person, you can buy it on increments, could afford to buy.

they were trying to impress upon you the need to do this. some of the posters are more crass. some of them are really pulling at your heartstrings. if they give their life -- you are getting money in return, right? let's say somebody goes down to the bank and says, i want to invest $1000 into a liberty bond. does that mean the person is patriotic? he might just have a good head on his shoulders when it comes to investments. does not mean he is not patriotic. officially, it represents patriotism. let's say somebody is asking , questions. you are talking about the kaiser. you appear loyal in public, right?

you. averted attention from yourself. who is in charge of selling his bonds? you have banks, you see these advertisements. you can go down to the bank and get a little receipt. you also have volunteers, a director in every county and they're dividing cities into very small districts. they go door to door to encourage you to buy those savings bonds. if you cannot show the receipt, they will try to make you buy one. what if you don't want to? what can happen to you? they put your name on a list and

then they put that list in the newspaper. they shame you. they shame you into action. the mindset is, you ought to be paying according to your well. usually they shame the wealthy people into action. if you're wealthier, you should be paying according to your wealth. sometimes you have a little additional information. people's names appear in the newspapers .he should have . bought more liberty bonds because we know he has 2005 -- 2500 $53 in his savings account. wait a minute, isn't that privilege information? >> [inaudible] >> ask the banker. who might also be part of the american protective league.

they can get information through any means necessary. remember the oath? that kind of personal information is revealed. whether the definition of loyalty -- men are supposed to volunteer. world war ii is the first time where we see of both sam actually pointing the finger at men, saying "i need you." like this announcement in the newspapers, many people in the -- they need people in the navy. why do they need men to volunteer? at the beginning of the war, we have a standing army of a hundred thousand men, we have a

national guard of an equal number, and the president is federalizing the national guard. initially, we have 200,000 men who have some form of training who we can send over there, an area where over millions have -- already millions have died. is 200,000 enough to win this war? no. so, initially they appeal to your sense of patriotism, that you need to volunteer for the navy or the army, but it's not working. people don't necessarily volunteer to die, right? yes, we have some volunteers, but it's not enough. 400,000 is still not enough to win this war. what is congress forced to do or believe they are forced to do? establish a draft, the selective service act in june of 1917. and of course, the expectation is, when your numbers are

strong, you go down -- first, you register. then when your number is drawn, you go down to the examination board, and you don't ask for exemptions unless necessary. when you are drafted, you go and serve without saying anything. it is your duty. it is what you do as a citizen. but if you're too young or too old for the draft, there's another option for you, and that is called the missouri home guard. it's an entire volunteer organization. it replaces the national guard, which has been federalized. after all, we do have to protect sensitive areas, like the stockyards, which happened to go up in flames in october of 1917.

you need to have somebody here guards from attacks by the enemy within. anybody who is 16 can join. who guards attacks -- against attacks by the enemy within. anyone is -- who is 16 can join. when you are 18, you are ready for the big army, right? anybody who is over 35 is no longer covered under the draft. you can serve if you are disabled. this is really an honorable service you can give the country if you don't get drafted. we have lots of units that are being set up. even here in kansas city. many of these units initially drove with wooden rifles. -- drilled with wooden rifles they didn't have what they needed, or they brought their own squirrel gun. eventually, private citizens donated for rifles, for uniforms, and eventually they

got some springfield breech loading rifles and some decent uniforms, as well. they kept busy. they guarded. they were on the lookout when they were marching throughout the major cities and towns. they had the right-of-way before anybody else because they were guard, protecting the local community, and sometimes they would get into smaller melees with people who were acting the way they weren't supposed to. for example, major cities had restricted areas into which german immigrants, who had not yet become citizens, were not allowed to go into. or if you saw somebody taking pictures in restricted areas, like around city hall or the railroad depots, the home guard would be there and they would confiscate those cameras, would

confiscate any film in those cameras. on.plates and so so, they were really trying to protect the home front from the enemy. women could be soldiers too, over there but primarily over here. how? they could be conserving food. they could commit to the united states food administration that they would eat more corn, oats, and arrive products, more fish and poultry, but less meat, meat, sugar, and fat. we needed that. we needed wheat to make bread for our soldiers, but we also were feeding our allies, great britain, france. if you can imagine the western hadt in northern france torn apart the agricultural region of that country and people were going hungry in france. we committed ourselves to not only send soldiers over there, but to also allow the french

people to survive this war. the same with britain. britain was virtually bankrupt. this is the major reason that convinced woodrow wilson to ask congress for a declaration of war. it is not the zimmerman telegram. it is not that american ships were sunk with submarine -- with the resumption of unlimited -- with the submarine warfare. it is that great britain goes bankrupt or almost bankrupt that we finally needed to go into this war. if britain goes bankrupt, german -- germany is going to rule the european continent. we could not let that happen. as a woman in the united states, you can participate in recipe competitions. monthly prizes would be one dollar each, which was a huge amount of money back then.

you could sign what is called the hoover pledge, committing yourself to conserving food, not to waste anything, only buy as much as you really need. it showed that you are patriotic. where would you get that hoover pledge card? it is somebody coming to your door to ask you to sign it right in front of them. can you say, i have a pot boiling on the stove? i have to take care of supper? what does that make you look like? that you are disloyal. absolutely correct. you feel coerced, intimidated. teachers were encouraged to hand out these cards to the students so that the students would take it home, have mom and dad sign it, then bring it back to class. what do you feel like as a student when your mom and dad

refuse to sign that card? peer pressure is an awful thing. of course, the worst thing that could happen is when a young boy stands up to the teacher and says, my daddy told me to never take anything home that you give to me. he is going to be the kid that winds up in the corner with the dunce cap on. does that mean he is unpatriotic? but he sure appears that way, and certainly his daddy appears that way. loyalty is defined in many different ways. children did have a lot of pressure. they had to write patriotic essays of why we are in this war, what the outcome of the war is going to be like, how it would change the world. they had to cultivate a victory gardens by the school, like represented here in missouri. that was your recess time.

you would go out and work in the garden. if you play sick, that looks awfully bad. there was something that all people could be supporting, and that was the american red cross. i chose this particular example because it goes towards the definition of loyalty. you are not saying the red cross is bad. you are just not supporting it as well as you should. to continue living as usual even though people are suffering, be it our soldiers or allies, but you don't want to pay attention. you are covering your years. -- ears. you don't want to know about the war. that is the worst thing you could ever do. by not being a patriotic american, by not giving largely and quickly, it could actually shed one drop of soldier blood, shaming you again and to

-- into demonstrating your patriotism and supporting the red cross. we have all of these different definitions of loyalty. if we look at the correspondence that happens between the individual states, in particular between missouri and the national council of defense, which was in charge of mobilizing the country for war, it looks that missouri is doing awesome. we always buy the quotas that are being set up for the liberty bonds, even over subscribing. we have men who are volunteering. we have men who abide by the rules of the selective service act. we have hordes of men who are volunteering for the missouri home guard. we've got women who are signing the food pledge, at least if you look at the numbers for the

whole state, and the state gets accolades for farmers stepping up and producing more wheat and meat for our soldiers, as well as our allies over there. on paper, on the surface, missouri looks like it is super patriotic. then you start scratching the surface. if you start looking at local correspondence between the missouri council of defense and the county councils, you begin to see something totally different. there are constantly notes of, these women are not lining up by the numbers they should. we need more speakers to come into our county so we can convince them to do the right thing. if we keep giving the answer that, i am a farmers woman. i know how to conserve food. why are you telling me i should do more?

we need to tell them what patriotism is. we need to teach them what patriotism is. other correspondence, talking about, people don't want to dig a second and a third and a fourth time into their pockets to buy war bonds. we had a total of five different campaigns for the liberty bonds, one in may of 1917, the other in october of 1917, april of 1918, september of 1918, and then again after the war was actually over in the spring of 1919, to help the allies recover from this dreadful war. people are getting tired of being asked to buy more and more savings bonds. they can only go so far with supporting the country. at this point then, i began to ask other questions.

why do we have this overall perception of loyalty, but underneath the surface, a perception of disloyalty? maybe people are not as willing to support the war as people thought they should have. what i did was to dig deeper into the files of the missouri council of defense. who were the leaders? what was their approach to making sure that missouri remain loyal? what i realized is is that, yes, they were placed in charge of mobilizing the state, but they have absolutely no legislative mandates. the missouri legislature was not in session during world war i. why not? back then, they only met every other year. they ended their session in april of 1917 with a resolution supporting the president in the war effort. we had just gotten into the war.

they had gotten done with their session, and they went home. they would not meet again until january of 1919. our governor, governor fred gardner, did not think it was necessary for an emergency session. after all, the national council of defense has sent down in order to all governors of all states to establish state councils of defense, and these state councils of defense were in charge of enforcing all regulations and guidelines that the congress was handing down. he didn't think there was any necessity for a legislative mandate. the council of defense members, chairman mumford and his secretary, who did most of the corresponding, they realized,

wait a minute, congress says, you have a quota, but they don't tell us how. how are we supposed to go about collecting money? who is in charge of it? there are no clear guidelines. when the federal government says, here are the guidelines, we expect everybody to follow these guidelines voluntarily because they are patriotic. , of course they would be doing that. sure, everybody abides by speed limits, right? so, they begin to realize, we are having a problem. the other thing that the missouri conseil -- council of defense s is how it sets up its organizational structure. the guidelines from the national council of defense are, you have the state council of defense,

and then you need to set up county councils of defense. missouri went beyond that. they set up councils of defense at the township level. then the governor said, the primary authority of carrying out the guidelines from the national council of defense are at the county and township levels. who is in charge? is the federal government in charge? is the state government in charge? who is in charge? local, ordinary people. this now shapes what happens in missouri during this time period. i just had a few examples here of what happens the state of missouri. in kansas city, on the evening of april 1, 1918 -- don't let you think that's an april fools

joke -- a crowd of 50 persons stylizing themselves as a vigilance committee visited the home of the doctor at 500 bennington avenue, gave him an american flag, and instructed him to display the flag prominently, because the committee objected to his unpatriotic remarks. if you did not follow these instructions and continued his disloyal expressions, a second visit of the committee would be of a more serious nature. what had he done? what had he said? he had a talk with his children's teacher. this teacher was talking about atrocities that german soldiers were committing in belgium. i'm not going to repeat some of those atrocities that the teacher was talking about, but what the good doctor thought was, wait a minute, first of all, these sound kind of outrageous.

second, where is your evidence? if you are the right kind of teacher, you need to show evidence of the students in class. you are just telling them stories, stories that you can't really back up with hard evidence. this is why this vigilance committee came to visit the good doctor. he told them, sure, my grandparents are german immigrants. i am married to a german immigrant, but i am a patriotic american. yes, he flies their flag, but then he goes inside, pulls out his own flag that he owns, that he shall he flies on holidays, usually flies on holidays, which is larger, and flies it on the front porch from every day from that day forward. this vigilance committee has a representative who also calls

"the kansas city star." this is why i know about this. because this appears in the newspaper. this member from the vigilant committee calls "the kansas city star" and makes sure that the editor writes in the newspaper that this "is only the beginning of the work of a well committee to enforce loyalty in the locality."locaty." in other words, people knew who was in charge. it is not some federal government official who was in charge to make sure everybody is loyal. it is this vigilant committee that is going to make sure that every american living in kansas

city is going to be loyal. communities throughout missouri used similar kinds of coercive means to maintain control. over here in osage county, and the small town of west valley -- it is a very germantown. you see the church with the traditional steeple and everything. there is a german-american newspaper located here, and it has been very critical of the war, the president, even after we went into war. other german language newspapers changed their minds and the more patriotic -- and became more patriotic. what did these german-americans do? they told the editor to either change his rhetoric or shutdown the paper. they shut down the paper. it is german-americans telling other german-americans how to behave. the same is happening over here. herman is the county seat up here. what you have is a division in

the county between, what i want to call urbanites, because herman is not really a big city when compared to the city, but you have bankers, shopkeepers who are telling the farmers how to behave, telling the city folk -- the city folk telling the farm wives on how to conserve the food. how to put more crop into the field, how to get a better yield, and you have the farmers saying, what are you telling me what to do? you live in the city. you don't get your hands dirty. you have this kind of division. the county very quickly gets a slacker label. they barely meet the quota for the first and the second liberty loans. they hardly get any women to sign the hoover food pledge. you've got men who are using every excuse that you can find of getting out of the draft, even if it means getting married at the last minute so you can move into category b to get out

of immediately being drafted. the state council defines the county as a slacker county. what happens? you have upstanding citizens, including the mayor of the city of herman, a german-american himself, then canvassing door-to-door everybody in the county. they will identify you as you level and as a slacker. they will identify you as such in the newspaper if you don't do what is expected of you. in other words, they are diverting attention. these are the people to blame for why we are being called a slacker county.

we have other examples here. in henry county, we have an amish population, several accusations of disloyalty as well as non-signers of the food pledge. you have a system set up. henry county sets up a color-coded warning system. if you are identified as a disloyal person for whatever i reason, you will get a white card in the mail explaining that you've been identified as a disloyal person. if you keep up with your disloyal activities, you will get a blue card. if you happen to receive a blue card, you are really doing that. -- bad. they are telling you stop now or you will get a red card, and a red card will mean we have reported you to the secret service.

i somebody is going to investigate you. you are most likely going to be charged under the espionage act. that is how they tried to maintain control. this is not federal government officials coming into your community. this is local individuals taking it upon themselves to make sure that everybody acts as they expect them to act, to not bring attention to the area. in cass county which is just south of jackson county, we have control over what happens on the telephone. people listening in? we are very much interested in the future patriotic spirit of our people. they do this as early as october of 1917. we are asking all of our telephone companies to have the operators to disconnect all persons that are making unpatriotic remarks.

[laughter] what is an unpatriotic remark? have any of you ever said anything negative about the president, about congress, the mayor or anything like that? click, there is your phone disconnected. if it is bad, you'll get reported and possibly have the apl investigate your character. the worst thing that can happen to you is you are going to be charged under the espionage act. we have these local attempts to control. as you can see, these are letters that they are sent to the missouri council of defense. sure, there are sending these letters, but then the answer comes back from the missouri council of defense.

i apologize for the quality of this, but this is what we deal with. they told them, we can't do anything. there is no federal law or state law prohibiting either the use of the german language or any other disloyal talk. people were concerned if you talk german over the telephone because they didn't know what you were talking about. were you talking about the weather, the stock market, or how to blow up a bridge? they tell them, there's nothing we can really do. all we can do is create a public sentiment in a community that might be sufficiently strong to encourage people to the more loyal, or in this case, to cause german-speaking people to use the english language. only if you have some really hard-core evidence convincingly

-- can we charge you under the espionage act. otherwise, it is local communities in charge of maintaining the image of loyalty and patriotism. it is fascinating. you have people who are trying to do something, but there is really no law backing them up. they don't have legitimate power to curb expression, to curb the freedom of speech. but that doesn't mean people aren't going to do it. in saint louis, for example, we have a movement by the st. louis republic to stamp out german language press. why? they are arguing that the german language press is disseminating propaganda. that 100% americanism, which is required during this crisis, needs to stop out this german

language press that seems to be disseminating the propaganda of the german government. well, they tried. they didn't always succeed. in st. louis in particular, you have several german language newspapers. the most prominent one is a conservative paper, very much a republican one, and the editor decides from day one, once we declare war on germany, to slip. -- flip. he used to be very critical of the british. he kept arguing, we need to be truly neutral in this war. we should not get involved. once the declaration of war is there, he begins to take the

government line. he puts any and all advertisements that come from the administration, the national council of defense in that newspaper. he files a translation for every article. sometimes he prints them in both german and english side-by-side to allow people to see, is this paper patriotic and loyal, or is it not? as a result, the paper gets this step of loyalty from the united states postmaster. by the end of the war, they are excluded from the enemy -- the trading with the enemy act. the campaign by the " st. louis republic" against its competitor fails. even the socialist paper that does feel the impact of the trading with the enemy act is

able to survive. the trading with the enemy act says that if you don't file translations, if you keep making negative comments, you will lose your second-class mailing privileges as a newspaper. in other words, you have to send out newspapers first class to your readers, which is twice as expensive. they fough -- thought once they take the privileges away from the socialist paper, that paper would disappear. no, it didn't. people paid for the extra postage. they paid extra for it, so it was able to maintain subscriptions and survive. they paid extra for it, so it was able to maintain subscriptions and survive. the store is different in kansas city. we have the two newspapers. the problem with the one paper

is that its editor and owners or charged and convicted. under the espionage act, which then forces that paper to merge with the other german paper. they have this label of disloyalty. they do not follow the guidelines. so they have to close shop. so it depends on what is happening, the choices by individuals, how much there is persecution and how much there is resentment or legal opposition to that. in st. louis, it does not quite work. in kansas city, you have the demise of one of the newspapers. we see the same happening when it comes to actual enforcement of the espionage act. we have in missouri an eastern district court in st. louis.

and a western district court, right? here in kansas city. well, in st. louis, you have 65 grand jury indictments that go to jury trials of individuals who are charged for violating the espionage act. in kansas city, you have five. what? kansas city is more patriotic than st. louis? [laughter] of course! that's the home spirit, right? but, no, you have to district -- two district attorneys who are acting totally differently. in st. louis, oliver -- his last name escapes me -- where is he? i hate when that happens. arthur oliver. in st. louis, the d.a. arthur oliver is a firebrand district

attorney. any accusation he will take to court. he will make sure st. louis is a patriotic and loyal town. in kansas city, not so much. francis wilson. in essence argues if it is conversation, me and you in private, that's private conversation. that cannot been charged under the espionage act. how is a private conversation going to hinder the effort of the military? what he argues is that if it is printed, if it is published, somewhere in here it is -- if it is published, then it could hinder the draft. it could hinder with the military effort during this war. so if it's people just talking with each other, be it in a tavern or one-on-one, we cannot charge them.

only if soldiers are present during a public speech, such as this, for example. we have had -- if we had half of the audience being soldiers, and are told that the kaiser will win this war. of course that will dishearten the soldiers. if no soldiers are present, will it still have an impact? possibly. we have an example of one of the cases where he succeeded in convicting somebody. that is rose pastor stokes. she is not german. she's a russian immigrant, a socialist. in this speech, she argued that the united states government is not for the people. it is for the profit makers, for the big companies. >> [inaudible] >> yeah, that's what she said.

that is what got her arrested under the espionage act. why? because not only did she say that in a public forum like this, but she also published a letter to the at at her in the st. louis -- in the kansas city star saying the same thing over again. so all mothers, all sisters, all brothers, all the people on the home front would then be discouraged about sending their men to die over there. that was the argument that francis wilson took. that is what convinced the jury in order to get her convicted as she got two years, even though she never did serve because the supreme court overruled this because the judge had given leading instructions to the jury.

in essence saying, if you're patriotic you will convict her. anyway, so i hope what i have done here today is convincing that yes, we should not ignore the federal law that exists, but we should not jump to conclusions that it is the federal government that is oppressing you as citizens during this time of world war i. in reality, your neighbors, local people and forcing local definitions of loyalty during world war i. of course, that also has an impact, right? after they shut down the newspaper in westphalia, people kept on talking german on the street. nobody was there to expose them as being disloyal because the paper, which would have been the public face of the community, was no longer there. a county by controlling german-americans kept investigators at bar. therefore, they could go to church on sunday morning and hear the sermon in german instead of in english. if you wanted to hear it in angus, you could go in the evening. you could get it both ways -- i

you wanted to hear it in him english, you could go in the evening. in some areas, german culture survived. and in some areas, where you do have investigators and lots of cases brought on, we have the demise of the german culture, ok. i'll stop here for today. and look forward to all of the questions you have for me. thank you. [applause] yes? >> how were the local or township or county representatives selected? >> among themselves. they usually chose among themselves. often they would include the mayor of the city or a county -- or a city council, other county officials.

they would then send a list to the state. and if there were no objections to anybody chosen, then they would say, ok, you 7 people will be in charge of the county. so they would choose among themselves. the question. good question. >> did you find in your research cases of where certain schools were required to change the language? >> yes. because, after all, who determines curriculum? it's local school board, right? so you have in some communities pressures, like in st. joseph's, where the school board decides we are going to stop teaching the language of the hun.

and strickler teach english. you -- and strictly teach english. you also have a state superintendent who in 1918 announces that all public schools stop teaching german. once the war is over, they offer it again. >> i have another question about the cultural decline. i grew up in one of the german lutheran areas in the ozarks. my parents, born 10 years after the war, still spoke german before they spoke english. so what happened to things like -- other cultural celebrations and just everyday use of language? did it really change much after that war? or did it take world war ii? >> in many cases, it took world war ii to change that. german-americans wanted to dissociate themselves from the nazis, which was totally different from dissociate itself from the old fatherland under bismarck. in some communities, they would just start talking in german in private at home. but in west failure, they kept

talking in german till the 1970's -- in westphalia. there is a man who did oral history. when he went into the old store there in westphalia they were still telling jokes in german because they thought the punchline would only bring it home in german. in some areas, you have the pressure to pull back, start speaking english. in others, once the suggestion of disloyalty is removed, they go right back to what they were doing before. does that answer your question? ok. what often would happen is they would continue celebrating those because that was a pagan festival. sure, they would play some of the old traditional songs, but they also played the "star-spangled banner."

they sold war savings stamps at the same time. you marry both. i can be german but a loyal american at the same time. >> very early on you mentioned that we are just 50 years after the american civil war. and looking at your map where a lot of german-americans were located was the most densely populated areas of missouri where you will find there is a lot of the county government controlled historically by democratic southern elements. in a bit of a twist, i'm curious what you might think, that it is a possibility that the tension is here where former southerners now find themselves waving the banner of patriotism and making accusations against those same people against whom their

ancestors had fought the civil war. >> yes, because southerners living in missouri and throughout the software very much opposed to government intervention, especially that -- throughout the south were very much opposed to government intervention. if they could divert attention from themselves as being opposed to government involvement, or they had socialist or german-americans living in the community, those individuals became easy targets. it's diverting attention from yourself as being not quite loyal to those who should obviously be disloyal. yes, they took advantage of that situation. >> i have feelings of déjà vu. my father was a public health service position in stuttgart during the 1930's. in 1939, 1940, i was bilingual. spoke german very well. went to school in pennsylvania, which has quite a few -- but i instantly was spouting german

phrases and everything, and i was told you and your dirty germans, go back to germany. and so, i remember, i also, i liked german opera. my father said, you're not going to hear an intel the war is over. i remember being pressured by the teacher to get our war -- hear any until the war is over. i remember being pressured by the teacher to get our war bonds, 18.75 will net you $25 later. my father had a victory garden, and there was a lot of pressure to not get extra gas coupons. i remember that very well. are you going to study german world war ii? >> i'm going to stick with world war i. i am concentrating on the espionage act right now because of what congressional officials initially argued. the espionage act is still with us today.

that never did go away. the sedition act went away in 1921, but the espionage act is still here. the supreme court says it is constitutional. >> my mother was austrian and in new york city as a little girl, and she never shared that much with me, but told me that she went under a lot of harassment from being of german descent. it was all over the country, not just missouri. >> definitely. yes? >> if i might wrap this up, i have one question to ask. and that is about missouri's favorite son at the time, john j. pershing who happened to be german, i believe. so, how was that spun at the time, that american expeditionary forces was being led by a german-american? >> it was possible for you to be a german-american. you could admit being a german-american, but you had to stop speaking german.

you had to buy liberty bonds and serve your country. ultimately, what did he do? aj the ultimate service. -- he did he served in the military. he was the leader of the american expeditionary forces over there in france and in europe. so, he really served as an example, as a german-american. this is what every german-american was supposed to do. ok, so definitely, absolutely. >> let's thank her again. [applause] >> thank you. i enjoyed it. thank you for participating. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

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